Minute
by snarechan
Summary: All it'd take to convince Kid Flash to walk on water to save his loved ones was sixty seconds.


**Pairings**: None**  
>Rating<strong>: K+  
><strong>Categories<strong>: Action/Adventure/Drama  
><strong>Warnings<strong>: None  
><strong>Status<strong>: One-shot, complete  
><strong>Summary<strong>: All it'd take to convince Kid Flash to walk on water to save his loved ones was sixty seconds.

**Notes**: I'd shared this awhile back on the meme, but due to real life obligations I was unable to post this elsewhere until now. Thanks goes to Keppiehed for glancing this over!

Done for the prompt that requested _Wally saving the day; his speed plays an integral part to winning_. Additionally, these lyrics from _The Dog Days Are Over_ by Florence and the Machine were to be used as inspiration:

"_Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father  
>run for your children, for your sisters and brothers<br>Leave all your love and your longing behind you  
>Can't carry it with you if you want to survive."<em>

* * *

><p>Sixty seconds remained on the clock, allowing Wally a chance to realize how much trouble he faced and what was at stake.<p>

This entire bust was a fluke. He'd stumbled across the protesters by accident while on the last legs of his patrol. He loathed the concept of being a sidekick; he didn't _feel_ like one when he was with his Uncle Barry. Even now they regularly scoured Central City together, but tonight it'd only been him. The Flash was across the world and Wally had left his team for the night. None of them knew the problem he faced.

Or they might by this point. The scuffle had attracted the attention of news crews and a crowd of curious onlookers who had no clue that the radicals had zero interest in peaceful statements.

The bomb was complex and huge, a tangle of wires, redundancies and chrome that Robin might have been able to decipher if he had been here. It was just Wally, though, who couldn't manage more than a microwave or a computer on a good day.

He stared at the red digital numbers and his breath hissed as events surrounding him slowed to a standstill. The chronometer appeared to stop on forty-eight seconds, but he knew he was running out of time. He'd knocked out and tied up the protesters before he realized what their agenda was, not that any would have agreed to diffuse their handiwork.

Wally's family - his mother and father and aunt and uncle – was in this city. There were the Garricks. He had neighbors and friends and classmates that knew him. Innocent people that had nothing to do with the activists' agenda were outside waiting for him to make a heroic exit and proclaim Central City safe once again.

Every single one of them was in danger if a bomb of this magnitude went off.

Making a frantic decision, he lifted the entire device off the floor and ran. He passed television interviewers, children, teenagers, and adults on his way. He carried the bomb down the street, bypassing shops he'd frequented since he was a kid, and through urban sprawls until he hit the city limits. There remained an abundance of people, so he continued along paved roads and out of the state.

At thirty seconds, he was heading toward the coast. Wally would have preferred a desert, an abandoned field or somewhere solid to plant his feet, but the ocean was closer. He pushed his body to its limit, muscles protesting at the burst of speed he put on as soon as his shoes touched water. He bypassed boats and tankers on his way to a point as far from civilization as he could manage – an open area devoid of life.

The clock read five seconds when he dropped it. The amount of effort to make a u-turn would waste too much time, so he kept racing forward and tried to outrun the incoming explosion he expected in

_Four._

_Three._

_Two._

_One._

A discharge of heat and sound rocked the area for miles, lighting the entire horizon, as the concussion blast spread three-hundred and sixty degrees. Despite the distance Wally had gained, the shockwave caught him in the back, followed by wave after wave of water that rushed out in all directions. He was running at such high speeds that he didn't so much fall as skip across the surface when he was struck, sending him a greater distance. Wally felt more than one bone shatter upon impact.

When he finally began to slow, his momentum was lost and so was the water tension, and he began to sink. He gasped for air and struggled to swim, but he had only one uninjured arm. It was also cold: very, _very_ cold.

Gritting his teeth, he tried in vain to float, but he was going under and he could see through his goggles as the sky became farther away. After the extremes he'd put his legs through, they'd locked up on him, too, so he couldn't even entertain the illusion that he could kick or propel toward the surface.

And yet, he _was_ moving toward the surface. He sucked air into his burning lungs, as much as his cracked ribs would allow between a coughing fit. Wally took notice of his savior and was mildly surprised to see a humpback whale – mildly because Aqualad and his king, Aquaman, joined him.

Kaldur approached and moved to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but stopped when he noticed his condition. Instead, he put his palm flat next to his head.

"Be calm. We've got you," Kaldur said.

"How…?" Wally asked, still wheezing.

"Batman," he clarified, and really, that was enough of an explanation.

"The Flash has been notified of your whereabouts and condition, as have the rest of the Justice League. We will rendezvous with your mentor shortly in Portugal. The criminals you apprehended have been brought into custody," Aquaman spoke up. He kneeled and maintained a regal air. "What you did today was…an outrageous act of courage."

"Thanks," Wally said. The gratitude seemed inadequate, but he didn't know what protocol dictated he should say when addressed by royalty, so he said what he felt was best. The compliment meant a lot coming from a king such as Aquaman. That amount of effort spent the last of his energy, and before either Kaldur or Aquaman could instruct him to rest, he was asleep; Wally was able to do so peacefully, knowing those he cared for were safe and sound.

-Fin-

**A/N**: Props to anyone who caught the _Batman: The Brave and the Bold_ reference.


End file.
